Transformational Learning Opportunities – Cluster Support

We held the first of two Masterclass sessions at Oakleigh State School yesterday which was attended by about 34 teachers from our cluster of 11 schools.   This form of support has evolved over the last 2 years and had been lead by a group of leaders in our schools including Karyn Hume (The Gap SS), Damien Green (Ashgrove SS), Cindy Stocks (Hilder Road SS), Andrew Collins (Hilder Road SS) and Nicola Flanagan (Oakleigh SS).

The purpose of these sessions is to support teachers who are relatively new to the use of iPads in the classroom.   Across our cluster we have a wide variety of models  of use including 1-1, BYO, shared devices and classrooms where there might be access to a small group of devices.  Our key intent is to support teachers to use technology in pedagogically sound ways, to develop the mindset of being a risk-taker and co-learner and to use technology to empower students to work in ways that wouldn’t be possible without the technology.

We started the session by reminding people of the enormous resources we had in each other and by encouraging people to learn from each other, share freely and collaborate willingly.   We then talked about the importance of pedagogy being the driver in any learning situation.  Models which support technology integration and use were shared – the TPCK model and the SAMR model.  Three of the leaders had been at the previous day’s Griffith University Summit on Digital Technologies and so we also referred to the key challenges of that day – how best to support pre-service teachers to be able to be able to thrive in an educational landscape in which digital technologies was central to learning.  We also talked briefly about ICT as a General Capability and the new curriculum area of Digital Technologies.

Key apps were then shared with the group by each of the leaders.  We had chosen apps which were versatile in their use and able to be used across the curriculum.    Damian shared Book Creator and focussed on its ease of use and versatility as a multi-model creation tool, Sadie shared Popplet and Inspiration as a mind-mapping tool, Cindy and Andrew shared Explain Everything, Damien shared Scratch Jn and Nicola briefly showed the power of workflow when using green screening and iMovie.

The teachers were then able to select one break-out session to look more closely at one app.   Following the frivolities of experimenting with and playing with the app, the group were brought back together and we discussed the next phase of our learning and collaboration which would be for the teachers to consider carefully a purposeful use of the technology they had chosen, to implement some aspect of its use in their classrooms and then to come back and share.

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